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Rugged Sprinter takes on Alaska

Nine Sprinter vans made the 3,171-kilometre trek on the ice- and snow-packed Alaska Highway unscathed except for a flat tire and a few stonechips in the windshields. Scott Foreman/for the province

Photograph by: Lisa Calvi

Tok, Alaska — Minus 38 degrees Celsius. Pitch black. 8 a.m. When I open the door of the motel room, the heated air escapes and forms an instant frozen wall of steam. Welcome to Alaska in January.

I’m on the final day of the first leg of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Arctic Drive, a northern 3,100-kilometre motoring expedition from Edmonton to Anchorage, that is testing the commercial Sprinter van in rugged, slippery and extreme cold conditions.

It’s also testing my driving skills.

Driving on snow and ice is nerve-racking and somewhat uncomfortable. But in a van?

Although a lot of North Americans may not realize it, Mercedes-Benz has been in the truck and van business for almost 120 years.

In Europe since 1995, the Sprinter came to North America in 2003 as a Dodge and in 2010, it was branded a Mercedes-Benz.

Since then, 7,000 of the units have been sold, in cargo, passenger and cabin-chassis configurations.

There are seven cargo and two passenger vans in our ‘Sprinter Arctic Drive’ convoy driving the icy historic Alaska Highway.

Sprinters are equipped with a 3.0L-litre V6 turbodiesel engine that makes 188 horsepower and 325 lbs.-ft of torque.

Mercedes-Benz’ BlueTEC diesel technology converts pollutant nitrogen oxides into harmless nitrogen and water, making the Sprinter engine one of the cleanest and most efficient in its class. These are definitely not your father’s diesels.

There are two wheelbase lengths: 3.7 m (144 in.) and 4.3 m (170 in.). Cargo vans have three roof-height options, three length options, while passenger vans have two of each. The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter passenger van has best-in-class interior standing height of 194 cm (76.4 in.).

I could do yoga back there!

The cargo van version has several best-in-class ratings, including in its largest configuration, best GVWR at 5.0-ton (11,030 lbs.), payload at 2.45-ton (5,415 lb.) and cargo volume at 17 cubic metres (600 cu. ft).

In terms of functionality and efficiency, it’s hard to beat a Sprinter with these numbers. The cargo van my partner and I are moving up the pioneer Alaska Highway is the longest at 7.3 metres (24 feet).

It’s big. So is the drive.

Between 600-700 km of driving each day. A total of 3,171 kilometres crossing the Rockies, the Pacific Coast and Alaska Mountain Ranges, through Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory and into the state of Alaska.

The cabin is comfortable enough although our version is about as basic as you can get.

The passenger seat is fixed, which takes some getting used to.

Other versions have fully adjustable, some even heated, seats.

Mother Nature could have thrown us a not-so-gentle reminder that winter in these parts doesn’t mess around, forcing longer dark driving hours on some of the most remote and treacherous roads on the continent.

We get a mix. Big, bright sunshine and frigid temperatures, overcast with constant snow flurries and slightly warmer air. Roads are snow-packed, ice-covered and slick. On-coming transport trucks blind us with whiteouts as they pass without slowing.

I was a bit wary at the outset.

How will the high-sided Mercedes-Benz Sprinter behave in crosswinds? How will it handle the icy, winding roads with swooping descents and dangerous curves of the Pacific Coast Mountains?

The Sprinter takes whatever the Rocky Mountains and the Alaska Range, featuring the two highest peaks of North America, Mount Logan in Canada at 5,959 metres (19,551 ft) and the imposing 6,194-metre peak of Mount McKinley in Alaska (20,320 ft), throw at it.

I’m impressed. According to Mercedes-Benz, the Sprinter’s Adaptive Electronic Stability Program would adapt to our load if we had one. The program employs features like Acceleration Skid Control, Roll Over Mitigation, and Roll Movement Intervention to keep us on the road. The ABS braking system is advanced.

When a 10-centimetre spike enters our right rear tire at 100 km/h on the solid-ice Alaska Highway, the tire pressure monitoring system alerts us immediately and we are able to pull off the highway and get the tire changed. Brr.

I love the North. The wildlife is more wild, the scenery is stunning, the light is otherworldly. The trucks and equipment on the highway are weird, wonderful and usually dirty.

Winter temperatures are downright brutal.

After all, this is the neighbourhood with the lowest ever recorded temperature in North America at -63 C (Snag, Yukon in 1947).

Let’s talk heating system on this Mercedes-Benz. All Sprinters come standard with a five kW diesel, heater booster and heated side mirrors, an additional five kW diesel heater for increased output and a handy-dandy programmable preheat function.

Simply set the timer for, say, 45 minutes before your departure time. At the set time, the small heater booster under the van turns on and preheats the coolant, circulating it so that the cabin starts to warm up, eliminating the need for a block heater. When you finally start the van, hot air comes from the vents right out of the gate.

This may not seem like much, but when that frozen wall of steam at your door alerts you to the -38 C air outside, see how happy your frigid feet will feel in your Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

If you’re in the market for a commercial van and wonder whether the Sprinter is up to the rugged, extreme challenges of working in the North, doubt no longer.

After two years of extreme-cold-weather testing, the Sprinter will tackle snow-packed and glare-ice roads, summit passes at 4,500 feet, roadblocks in the form of herds of bison and, with the preheat system, the BlueTEC clean diesel engine will fire up in a snap in dead cold. Mercedes-Benz can be proud of its Sprinter van.

I’m proud to have covered those many, many kilometres on isolated ice- and snow-packed roads at the top of the world. But one of the coolest things on this cold-weather expedition? I ‘beeped’ in reverse. I’ve always wanted to do that.

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